General Atomics to Teach UK Drones to Prevent Collisions

The American company will equip the United Kingdom’s aircraft with state-of-the-art electronics expanding the scope of their use for military and civilian purposes.\n

Unmanned aerial vehicles are not used as actively today as they could be. It is primarily due to the danger they can hypothetically pose when flying in same airspace with regular aircraft. Should their traffic density increase considerably, it would inevitably lead to collisions.

The issue was highlighted by representatives of the UK Royal Air Force. To address it, General Atomics (USA) was contracted to improve the devices being currently operated. The first drones to get the new electronics will be Protector RG Mk.1. With the upgrade, they will have the capability to accurately assess the environment and change their flight paths in case of any obstacles detected.

The system is likely to be based on an air surveillance radar station.